Jota Sport Quickest in ELMS Opening Practice at Silverstone

Jota Sport’s Zytek topped the first free practice session for the European Le Mans Series season opener at the Silverstone Circuit.

The No. 38 Zytek Z11SN Nissan, driven by Harry Tincknell, Filipe Albuquerque and Simon Doland, was the fastest in the first 60-minute practice session at a rather chilly but sunny Northamptonshire race track.

Harry Tincknell’s fastest lap was only 0.025s faster than the time set by the No. 43 Newblood by Morand Racing Morgan Judd, driven by Christian Klien, Gary Hirsch and Romain Brandela.

Seven tenths of a second behind the Jota Sport Zytek the two Greaves Motorsport cars made it three Zyteks in the top four, with the No. 28 just seven hundredths faster than the No. 41.

Reigning champions Signatech Alpine finished the opening session in seventh place, while the Race Performance Oreca Judd, back after its crash at Paul Ricard, didn’t set a time after Franck Mailleux hit the wall at Becketts on his first lap.

The SMP Racing Ferrari’s were fastest in both GTE and GTC in the first practice session.

In GTE the No. 72 Ferrari 458 Italia of Andrea Bertolini, Viktor Shaitar and Sergey Zlobin was over half a second faster than the AF Corse Ferrari No. 55 of Michele Rugolo, Matt Griffin and Duncan Cameron. JMW Motorsport ended the session in third place.

The No. 71 SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Kirrill Ladygin, Aleksey Basov and Luca Persani went quickest in GTC, posting the fourth fastest GT time of the session. The No. 93 Pro GT by Almeras Porsche ended the session in second place, just over four tenths behind the Ferrari. ART Grand Prix’ Kevin Korjus, Grégoire Demoustier and Yann Goudy finished third.